Wednesday, May 5, 2010

foster and adoption update combo

*foster update:
we are going to court tomorrow, thursday, may 6th at 1:30 p.m. regarding the boys' case. P's dad has requested a full trial and we are expecting that to take place tomorrow. the boys' mom has already pleaded guilty so i'm not sure how much of the case will pertain to her or not. truly, we have no idea what to expect...

if you could, please pray for the court hearing and all parties involved. if you want to pray specifically, here are some things you can pray for-
* that the judge would have wisdom and discernment, and would make all her decisions based on the best interest of the boys.
*for God's perfect timing. we are not sure whether to pray for closure or for more waiting, but we know that the longer we have the boys, the harder it will be to let them go. however, if it will give us a better chance at keeping them long term, we're willing to wait.
*that truth would be revealed and that anything that's currently being hidden would be put on the table.
*for protection of R, who is required to be present at the hearing and who may have to testify against P's dad.
*for ryan and i to be able to properly advocate for the boys if called upon.
*for ryan and i to have peace with the outcome, and to trust God even if it's hard to see His bigger picture.

thank you for walking alongside us and praying for us! ryan and i talk all the time about how we would have never predicted this for our life, or for the way we would begin our family, but how we would not change it for a million dollars! God's plans are so much bigger and better than the plans we could have dreamed for ourselves.

"For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." -Hebrews 3:4

*adoption update:
we finally received the copy of our state home study and the receipt of our I-600 form from USCIS!!! these were the last 2 pieces of paper that we needed to finish out our home study. we are expecting it to be complete within about 3 weeks. around that time, we should hopefully be getting an appointment for our FBI fingerprinting as well. once we have our home study complete, we will be able to begin applying for some adoption grants and also submit for our final approval from USCIS to bring our child home from Ethiopia to the US. i cannot wait to get these last few things tied up so that we can submit our dossier to Ethiopia and go on the waiting list for a referral. i keep imagining what that day will look like and how joyful we'll be...much like i imagined for months about the day we would get a foster placement.

as far as fundraising, we have ordered our first run of t-shirts and i hope to be able to begin offering them in the next 2 weeks or so. i love the design and hope you all will too! we are going to be selling the shirts for $20, and all the sales will go towards helping us bring our child home from ethiopia. if you know for sure that you would like a shirt, sight unseen, please let me know and i will reserve one for you. we ordered a few youth sizes this time around too, so we have from size YM to adult 2XL. i'll keep you posted on the shirt progress... we are also still planning our adoption yard sale for later in the month at my sister's house. her neighborhood is doing a big yard sale so we hope to be able to utilize the large crowd to raise lots of support for our adoption. if you're in our area, please let me know if you have anything you want to donate to the sale! i would be happy to pick the items up and save you the trip to goodwill!

thank you again for your prayers and love,

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